@Amazing Pog As a preacher I too speak for a living. Yet, today I performed two quick effects for a mother and her little girl and my hands were shaking. You are right...it is something everyone has to deal with. I recall hearing Red Skelton say years ago that he threw up before every show of his long and distinguished career. I guess I personally count myself lucky that my nervousness only makes my hands shake!

Yes, rmann, I too am glad it's only my hands that shake! It could be much worse ...

Nervousness happens to most performers. Most of them also say being nervous helps them give a better performance. But in magic, it helps if your hands don't shake. Once they start, it is hard to cslm them down.

So start with a warm up of your audience and become friends before you do any magic. That helps to calm you down. Then do a dead simple trick you can do in your sleep. Have fun. Once you get that done, the nervousness will probably be gone.

I was a professional comedian for quite some time and then began studying mentalism and seance work. After a good solid run with a partner that suddenly went sour, I fell into a bottle. The whiskey eventually lost, but its weird how it all can set back in. In fact, "stage fright" was the first thing I searched for upon coming back to Magic Café. I'm actually so nervous that I'm having trouble rehearsing. Wonderful bootstrapping thoughts on this thread. Thanks!